What do our clothes, coffee preferences, choice of jogging location, or untameable shopping habits say about us? A whole lot, shows journalist Shefalee Vasudev’s latest book, Stories We Wear: Status, Spectacle and the Politics of Appearance.
Every person, from the vulnerable child labourer to billionaires at airports, is desperate to stand out, either through what they wear, how they interact with their surroundings, and most crucially, how consistently they can put up the act. It is an act – humans are hardwired in their desire to look good (you may interpret it as signalling prosperity and well-being) but this comes at a cost. “Curating” a look is an expensive affair – not just on our pockets but its human cost is immense, sometimes even fatal. In this book, Vasudev breaks down the propensity for wanting to look “good” and the invisible forces that shape this desire. She takes a hard look at why certain brands inspire envy, the ethos that drives consumer behaviour, the indelible mark of caste and gender in fashion, and how almost everything we see (and buy) feeds something nefarious.
What’s in a look?
The cover of the book gives a different idea – I assumed I’d be reading about clothing and attire, and the politics...
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